Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 220, Section 218: Silent Weeping

A squadron of armed transport helicopters with Talos livery arrived over Kofu City, looking down at the rampaging wild boars below.

"Establish a defense line and capture as many live animals as possible."

Mission instructions were transmitted via the armored vehicle's internal communicator.

The Talos special forces, an experimental unit, consisted of four units, codenamed T (Titan), E (Eradicator), S (Sentinel), and V (Vanguard).

Currently, all four units have been deployed to various military bases in Japan, and some personnel have been transferred to the Y-shaped commando team jointly commanded by the United States and Japan.

Team T suffered the most severe losses and was temporarily relegated to the second line, mainly responsible for protecting the experimental site and replenishing and training combat personnel.

The squad that is now arriving is Talos-S.

Compared to Team T, they are more diverse in terms of equipment and are skilled at deploying defensive lines and carrying out defensive missions.

shhhhh!

One by one, figures fully covered in armor descended from the sky, their movements clean and swift, and the moment they landed, they quickly formed a dense crossfire using the roadside cover.

The helmet visor flashes with data collected by AI.

"Squads in position, A and B groups provide suppressive fire, C group covers the evacuation of nearby citizens to the underground passage."

"Identify the target, destroy the target, and execute the plan."

Buzz—Click!

The crisp sound of heavy weapons being unlocked rang out.

Chu Chu Chu!
In mid-air, the multi-barreled rotary machine gun under the helicopter's fuselage suddenly opened fire.

A dense barrage of bullets formed a veritable waterfall of metal, slamming into the herd of wild boars charging toward the Talos squad.

This time, the wild boar's rough, thick hide, which had driven the officers to despair, proved ineffective.

A torrent of steel meets a torrent of flesh and blood.

Destroy and destroy.

Most of the wild boar's heavy body was instantly torn apart and blown apart by a dense barrage of large-caliber bullets.

Only the front row, the strongest and most ferocious wild boars, managed to survive this barrage of fire, but their charge was abruptly halted, leaving them battered and bruised.

"action!"

After the helicopter's heavy firepower ceased, the squad used pinpoint fire on the wild boar's relatively vulnerable vitals such as its leg joints and eyes. The powerful firepower and skillful coordination immediately reversed the chaotic scene on the street and completely regained control.

With the shift in offense and defense, wild boars became easy prey for humans to slaughter.

The capture operation began, with anesthetics and barbed wire used extensively, effectively trapping the three surviving elite wild boars in place, rendering them immobile and causing their eyelids to droop.

"Squeak!!"

The strongest wild boar let out a mournful squeal, attracting other wild boars from the city to come to its aid.

But the battle lines had already been established, and with the arrival of heavy firepower, the boars were doomed to defeat.

One after another, wild boars fell to the rhythmic barrage of fire, nearly blocking the entire block.

At that moment, a series of high-pitched and eerie howls echoed from the direction the wild boar had charged out of the forest.

Immediately afterwards, the ferocious boars, which should have been fearless in their attacks, suddenly stopped.

Similar to the giant bears, they seemed to have received some absolutely irresistible order to retreat. Without the slightest hesitation, their massive bodies turned around and ceased fighting.

As the tide receded, the ferocious beasts that had just trampled the city with their destructive power quickly fled the battlefield, covered in blood.

They regrouped into a chaotic but clearly directional torrent, rushing somewhat disheveled out of the city lights along the path they had blasted open, and hastily retreating towards the dense forest they had come from.

The streets were left in ruins, with burning car wrecks and congealed pools of blood.

And some citizens who had narrowly escaped death and had not yet fully recovered from the shock.

"Remain vigilant, keep civilians away, cordon off the site, and complete the hoisting and reinforcement work."

The Talos team remained vigilant and continued to reinforce the defenses on site.

In the sky, carried by a wisp of evening breeze, a string of ridiculously large dandelion seeds swept low across the air, giving one an indescribable and strange feeling.

Hirosue Eri released the dandelion seeds from her hand, letting them fall onto the gravel plowed out by wild boars on the street, her body swaying slightly as she lost her balance.

She had already killed several groups of wild boars. The group that the Talos team had just dealt with was her next target, but she was too late, and even the remaining wild boars had all fled.

That's good, she's really close to her limit.

At this moment, her casual clothes, blonde hair, and even her originally fair skin were stained with blood and dust. Coupled with her sweat-drenched head, apart from her unique temperament and appearance, she was really no different from other survivors.

She calmly arrived at the outer perimeter of the temporary defensive line established by the Talos squad.

The dark green armor gleamed under the neon lights as the squad members carried out cleaning and reinforcement work.

Scattered on the ground were numerous shell casings and wild boar fragments. Not far away, in the core area guarded by the troops, three giant mutated wild boars, bound by layers of special alloy chains and powerful restraint nets and injected with potent sedatives, lay prone on the ground.

Their heavy bodies rose and fell with their breath, and blood gushed from their wounds, staining the concrete beneath them red.

A tremendous noise came from above, from the propellers and the creaking of the winches turning.

As the helicopter slowly descended, the largest wild boar was securely tethered by the Talos team's rapid operation.

The monstrous wild boar, under the influence of a powerful tranquilizer, drooped its head, trapped in the net bag, suspended in mid-air, giving it an unreal appearance.

The helmet visors of the outer squad members scanned the suddenly appearing Yingli, and the information was quickly compared.

"Captain, it's Ms. Hirosue Eri from the Extraordinary Measures Department. She's here."

The captain glanced at the footage sent by his teammates and briefly confirmed it with Leon at the rear base.

"Identity confirmed, no need to stop."

He raised his hand and made a simple gesture, and the surrounding team members tacitly moved their guns away, but their vigilance remained undiminished.

Eri paid no attention to these high-ranking soldiers; she had seen many in the lab, except that the armor paint on this group was a little different.

At this moment, all her attention was focused on the two remaining wild boars on the ground, which were being reinforced with chains by the Talos team.

The wild boar had its eyes half-closed and its tongue sticking out, looking much like a cat that had been anesthetized during a neutering procedure.

"To ensure the anesthetic effect, the dosage for each wild boar is enough to incapacitate ten elephants. But for these monsters, it only has a slight effect, as they are also very resistant to anesthesia."

Considering Hirosue Eri's special status, the captain deliberately took two steps closer and explained.

Eri nodded slightly, her gaze shifting from the wild boar's wound to its head.

at this time.

The wild boar, which was bound tightly with chains, suddenly opened its eyes, which had been half-open and listless due to the effects of the drugs, without warning, and rolled its eyeballs upward.

The scarlet eyeballs disappeared, leaving only pure white.

Immediately afterward, a chilling aura, like poison gas, spread outwards, and her wrist glowed brightly green, filling her with extreme unease. "Watch out!!"

Without any hesitation, the moment Eri cried out, her body reacted even faster than her voice, lunging towards the wall of a dilapidated building beside her.

The wisteria hanging down from the third-floor balcony, forming a natural green curtain, seemed to come alive instantly. The thick vines trembled violently, then curled and coiled. In the instant she lunged forward, dozens of tough vines twisted together with lightning speed, forming a thick, semi-circular vine shield beside her.

When she called out, the Talos team was not surprised or hesitant, and immediately activated the emergency plan.

boom!boom!
The team members' armored jet propulsion helped them rush towards the nearest sturdy cover at top speed, a reaction that was textbook perfect!

But the time was too short.

Just the next second.

Those enormous wild boars with their eyes rolled back, their skin, which was wrapped in layers of restraint nets and metal chains and was strong enough to withstand small-caliber bullets, suddenly swelled up like balloons, expanding to the limit that everyone could feel in the blink of an eye.

Everyone understands the consequences of a balloon being inflated to its maximum.

Boom!

The ground shook violently.

A muffled, deafening roar exploded in the middle of the street. The chaotic tissues inside the wild boar's body shot out violently in all directions like a fountain from hell. The alloy chains that bound and restrained it snapped under the immense force. The powerful shockwave, carrying scalding blood, foul odor, and a stench, filled every direction.

That wasn't the shockwave of ordinary explosives, but more like an evil force being detonated in an instant.

The scene looks a bit like a whale explosion, but it's much more intense.

Centered on the explosion point, a large cloud of blood mist instantly covered a radius of 100 meters, painting everything red and shrouding it in crimson.

Almost at the same time.

The heavy transport helicopter, which had just completed hoisting and was preparing to lift the wild boar to a safe altitude, suddenly shuddered as the boar exploded.

boom--!
A blazing orange-red fireball erupted beneath its belly, causing the entire aircraft to lose its balance, billowing black smoke as it spun desperately and hurtled towards another intact commercial building not far away!

tom!
A deafening crash followed by a second explosion, and towering flames once again illuminated the ravaged streets.

The air was thick with a fog of blood, the smell of burnt metal, and the stench of burning gasoline.

The streets were even more of a mess.

The ground was blasted into an irregular crater, and the bottom of the crater and the affected bunkers were covered with a thick layer of sticky blood mud and fragments of tissue.

"Ho ho."

Before Hirosue Eri, the huge wisteria vine shield creaked and slowly drooped.

The surface of the vines was covered with splattered blood and flesh, making it slippery and disgusting.

She emerged slowly, panting, her pale face tinged with an unnatural dark red from the blood mist. Her gaze swept over the devastated scene.

Several shattered, dark green figures lay scattered across the area ravaged by the shockwave. These were members of the Talos team, who were closer to the explosion's epicenter and had been struck by the broken chains.

In front of the ruins, some surviving Talos members struggled to their feet, while others leaned against the broken walls to quickly check their own equipment and the condition of their comrades.

Those in better condition staggered toward their fallen comrades, a rapid, hoarse voice coming from under their helmets to connect with the other person's vital signs and request medical assistance.

Although they were generally in a sorry state, most of them were still able to move around, thanks to the armor representing the pinnacle of technology and years of training.

Not far away, the crashed helicopter transformed into a giant burning torch, blazing fiercely on the nearby building ruins and illuminating the night sky.

She sniffed, and in addition to the stench of blood, she also detected a strange smell that made her uneasy, yet she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

She pressed the communication device.

"Connect me to Minister Leon."

"Zzz. Right. Holding."

The blood mist seemed to be affecting communications. Hirosue Eri looked around, quickly chose another wisteria vine, and used it to quickly reach the top of the apartment building.

Although they were still within the blood mist's reach, at least communication was much smoother.

"Can I hear from Miss Eri? This is Leon."

"Sure, do you know the situation on the ground?"

"According to the last footage, the captured wild boar spontaneously combusted."

Hirosue Eri interrupted, "That's not the point. The smell of this blood mist is very strange and may affect civilians. We need to immediately impose a strict lockdown on this area. Anyone entering must be quarantined according to the highest standards."

Leon on the other end of the line was silent for a few seconds, as if he had just put down the phone and was talking to someone.

“I understand, thank you for the intelligence. We are temporarily unable to contact Talos-S team. I have sent you the command key, and you can direct them to complete a simple deployment. Support forces will arrive as soon as possible.”

"They suffered significant losses."

“I understand, but that doesn’t stop them from carrying out their mission.”

Just as Eri was about to say something more, her expression suddenly changed, and she abruptly clutched her heart.

An overwhelming wave of grief surged through her mind, overwhelming her spirit and rendering her unable to utter a sound.

She seemed to have felt this way before.
It seems that when she was a child, she had a rather magical experience during the days she was lost in the forest. Unfortunately, after leaving the forest, she seemed to have forgotten some key details. She only remembered that the forest invited her and guided her back to the outside world three days later.

However, the difference is that the feeling back then wasn't as exaggerated or intense as it is now.

That was the lament of the forest, a silent wailing.

She stroked the lines on her wrist, slowly raising her head. Her gaze seemed to pierce through the blood mist and smoke that filled the city, across the ravaged streets, and fall heavily on the massive silhouette standing against the deep night sky on the southern horizon—

Mount Fuji.

Pitch black, silent, like a colossal beast lurking in the shadows.

Was this some kind of instruction from the forest?

The culprit that caused all of this is related to Mount Fuji, or rather, to the existence of something somewhere on Mount Fuji.
"Miss Hirosue?! Miss Hirosue?!"

The communication device transmitted Leon's repeated calls.

".I am here."

"What just happened?"

Hirosue Eri continued to gaze at the outline of Mount Fuji, without hiding anything.

"I feel like I sensed something; what happened today is related to Mount Fuji."

“Hmm,” Leon paused, “Just now, several people in the foothills around Fujiyoshida City reported to the police that a giant bear had attacked them.”

“I naturally believe your feeling. It seems that Mount Fuji has indeed undergone some unknown changes that require our attention.”

"Perhaps this is the warning that the divine flower is giving to you and me."

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(End of this chapter)